Caregiving and Conferencing: Supporting Faculty Participation in Conference Travel

Participation in academic conferences is vital to faculty careers. A statewide program in West Virginia sought to remove travel-related barriers for scholars by reimbursing caregiving costs incurred from traveling. While women were the majority of applicants, faculty of immigrant status and those of color reported more benefits from travel. Family travel funds were requested most often to offset childcare responsibilities for dual career couples. For institutions aiming to implement intersectional, multipronged approaches to institutional change, supporting family travel is vital for the professional development of underrepresented faculty.

Strengthening the Pathways to Faculty Careers in STEM Recommendations for Systemic Changes to Support Underrepresented Groups

As part of a national initiative to recruit, hire, andretain STEM faculty from underrepresented groups, theAssociation of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU)INCLUDES project, funded by the National ScienceFoundation, examined university efforts supportingaccess to, retention in, and progress to the professoriatefor URG STEM faculty aspirants. In addition to conveningacademic experts and institutional leaders, APLUsurveyed member institutions about their practices topromote diversity in these areas. Findings from APLUINCLUDES Activities included: ◊ There are a wide variety of pathways to the STEMprofessoriate, including many non-traditionalroutes. ◊ Many universities have robust programs tosupport URG students during their undergraduateand graduate careers, but that support appearsto diminish at the post-doctoral and early careerfaculty stages. ◊ While existing programs are serving immediateneeds of individual students, the localistic andtargeted focus of these programs display a limitedimpact on the most intractable challenges todiversifying the faculty. ◊ The lack of federal unit-level data frustratesefforts to follow aspirants to the STEM professoriatethrough the career pathways.This report details the findings of APLU INCLUDES workand calls on higher education leaders, current STEMfaculty, researchers, and policy makers to help shift theconversation from focusing on addressing individuals’needs to create systemic and cultural changes in theSTEM ecosystem to promote diversity and inclusionacross the career pipeline.